A coolant in an internal combustion engine of a vehicle circulates through a water pump so as to remove heat generated by the engine. In the past, a mechanical water pump was generally mounted to mechanically interlock a crankshaft of an engine. Recently, however, an electric water pump has been widely used, which is capable of independently and actively controlling driving of the engine in consideration of various factors such as an operation state of the engine.
Since the electric water pump is driven by an electric motor, a stable and suitable operation of the motor is necessary in order to control consistent flow of an engine coolant.
Therefore, a status of the motor for the electric water pump needs to be checked. For an electric water pump using a sensorless 3-phase motor, a controller needs to pre-diagnose whether a coil of one phase of the motor or coils of two phases thereof are open to prevent overheating of an engine.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in a better understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean that the present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.